Community Corner

UPDATED: DTE: Power Restoration 'Will Take Us Into the Weekend'

About 7,000 DTE customers in Farmington and Farmington Hills are among 190,000 metro Detroiters without power today.

UPDATE - 2:45 p.m.: Cass at Shiawassee and Marblehead at Power are among areas in Farmington and Farmington Hills blocked off by yellow tape, due to downed tree limbs and power lines. 

Commander David Stasch said eight traffic lights remain out, and motorists should treat those intersections like a 4-way stop. Other than downed trees, he said, "no significant damage" was reported in Farmington Hills. 

The same holds true in Farmington, Director Bob Schulz said. Officers responded to about 10 calls of downed trees and seven downed power lines. He said a house on Hillcrest suffered minor damage, and a shed on Lamar was damaged by a small fire. 

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Schulz said the storm "seemed to have a northwest feel to it", with most of the damage north of Freedom and west of Gill. 

DTE trucks were spotted by Farmington Hills resident Erik Lindquist late Wednesday night at 12 Mile and Kendallwood. We saw them out today around downed power lines on Power and on 10 Mile in Farmington. 

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

UPDATE - 12:45 pm: DTE Energy reports via Twitter that if there is no more storm damage, the company expects the vast majority of customers back online by late Saturday night. Restoration times will vary. Customers can download a smartphone application in iTunes or Android Market, or visit dteenergy.com to get more specific information.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, DTE spokesperson Scott Simons said 190,000 customers were without power in southeast Michigan. By Thursday afternoon, that total had risen to 210,000, including about 7,000 customers in Farmington and Farmington Hills. DTE spokeswoman Eileen Dixon said more than 1,000 power lines are down. 

"This is the fourth storm we've had since Tuesday morning, so we have to keep reassessing priorities," DTE spokesman Scott Simons said this morning. "But, we do know the restoration process will take us into the weekend."

Simons said the utility had reduced the outage number from Tuesday's storms to 17,000 before a Wednesday evening storm hit, followed by what DTE experienced as the most severe storm of the week overnight.

DTE has recalled 100 linemen who were sent to Ohio to help with repairs after storms there last week and expects to have a power restoration estimate later today.

According to the DTE website, the following areas of Farmington and Farmington Hills were without power as of 10:15 a.m. today:

  • 3,100 between 12 Mile and 14 Mile, west of Drake and east of Farmington Road (expands an outage area from July 4)
  • 599 north of 12 Mile, between Orchard Lake and Middlebelt
  • More than 100 between Orchard Lake and Middlebelt, Nine and 10 Mile 
  • 814 east and west of Orchard Lake, from Grand River to Shiawassee
  • 592 between Grand River and Shiawassee, east of Middlebelt
  • 1,981 in a swath east and west of Farmington, from Grand River south to 7 Mile in Livonia 
  • 528 in the Middlebelt/Northwestern/14 Mile triangle, extending north of 14 Mile into West Bloomfield

In addition, smaller neighborhood outages are scattered throughout the community. 

Today's high is expected to hit 98, with a 30 percent chance that we'll see more thunderstorms. The National Weather Service expects the mercury to climb over 100 tomorrow and has issued an excessive heat warning through Friday at 9 p.m. With the high temperatures and humidity, the heat index is expected to rainge between 100 and 110.

The NWS warns that heat-related illnesses and dehydration are possible, and this week's consecutive hot days could intensify the effects of heat on those who are sensitive to it. 


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